It was yesterday or the day before that I agreed with someone, maybe
went further, and said I had never heard an emergency alert on the radio
or tv, even though I had heard those annoying test tones at least a
dozen times a year for the last 50 or more years.

Well. just now, maybe less than a day later, I heard one. I was
listening to WTOP, an all news radio station in Washington DC. I was
listening to the webcast which is identical to what goes over the air.
I was muting the station but I heard part of the tone, and maybe "This
is an alert" so I went back to it, and heard a complet alert, from
Sterling Va. for a tornado, which had been seen near there. This was
at 7:53 and the alert was in effect until 8:15, and they listed parts of
3 counties that you have never hard up. Stafford, Culpepper, and
another.

Fairly rural areas and quite far from me, but that doesn't change the
coincidence.

Quite amazign that 24 hours after I tabulate 50 years comes an
excepttion, the first exception, to those 50 years.

=----

And at 8:04 A woman with an intense voice "We interrupt this program
with important emergency information to fllow". [followed by the
introductory tones] [an intense message, extending the time to midnight
and extending the area to mid-Maryland] [followed by the closing
tones... Did you realize they are different?] Then the same woman
with a different tone of voice, more typical of the news, talking a
little and introducing an ABC news guy. He claimed the alert was just
until 8:15, which is only a few minutes from now.

..

On Saturday, June 20, 2015 at 7:10:31 PM UTC-5, micky wrote:
It was yesterday or the day before that I agreed with someone, maybe
went further, and said I had never heard an emergency alert on the radio
or tv, even though I had heard those annoying test tones at least a
dozen times a year for the last 50 or more years.

Well. just now, maybe less than a day later, I heard one. I was
listening to WTOP, an all news radio station in Washington DC. I was
listening to the webcast which is identical to what goes over the air.
I was muting the station but I heard part of the tone, and maybe "This
is an alert" so I went back to it, and heard a complet alert, from
Sterling Va. for a tornado, which had been seen near there. This was
at 7:53 and the alert was in effect until 8:15, and they listed parts of
3 counties that you have never hard up. Stafford, Culpepper, and
another.

Fairly rural areas and quite far from me, but that doesn't change the
coincidence.

Quite amazign that 24 hours after I tabulate 50 years comes an
excepttion, the first exception, to those 50 years.

=----

And at 8:04 A woman with an intense voice "We interrupt this program
with important emergency information to fllow". [followed by the
introductory tones] [an intense message, extending the time to midnight
and extending the area to mid-Maryland] [followed by the closing
tones... Did you realize they are different?] Then the same woman
with a different tone of voice, more typical of the news, talking a
little and introducing an ABC news guy. He claimed the alert was just
until 8:15, which is only a few minutes from now.

.

yaaaawn...^o^

micky posted for all of us...



It was yesterday or the day before that I agreed with someone, maybe
went further, and said I had never heard an emergency alert on the radio
or tv, even though I had heard those annoying test tones at least a
dozen times a year for the last 50 or more years.

Well. just now, maybe less than a day later, I heard one. I was
listening to WTOP, an all news radio station in Washington DC. I was
listening to the webcast which is identical to what goes over the air.
I was muting the station but I heard part of the tone, and maybe "This
is an alert" so I went back to it, and heard a complet alert, from
Sterling Va. for a tornado, which had been seen near there. This was
at 7:53 and the alert was in effect until 8:15, and they listed parts of
3 counties that you have never hard up. Stafford, Culpepper, and
another.

Fairly rural areas and quite far from me, but that doesn't change the
coincidence.

Quite amazign that 24 hours after I tabulate 50 years comes an
excepttion, the first exception, to those 50 years.

=----

And at 8:04 A woman with an intense voice "We interrupt this program
with important emergency information to fllow". [followed by the
introductory tones] [an intense message, extending the time to midnight
and extending the area to mid-Maryland] [followed by the closing
tones... Did you realize they are different?] Then the same woman
with a different tone of voice, more typical of the news, talking a
little and introducing an ABC news guy. He claimed the alert was just
until 8:15, which is only a few minutes from now.

.

You have been alerted, but the invasion is just beginning...

--
Tekkie *Please post a follow-up*

On Saturday, June 20, 2015 at 8:10:31 PM UTC-4, micky wrote:
It was yesterday or the day before that I agreed with someone, maybe
went further, and said I had never heard an emergency alert on the radio
or tv, even though I had heard those annoying test tones at least a
dozen times a year for the last 50 or more years.

Well. just now, maybe less than a day later, I heard one.

My cellphone woke me up at about 1:30 am today, recommending that
we go to the basement. I'm confident that if I'd gone to the living
room and turned on the TV, it would have told me the same thing, since
I've seen emergency alerts on TV before (quite often on something
recorded, so it doesn't do me a lick of good).

Instead of taking my cellphone's advice, we went out to the screen
porch and watched the thunderstorm for about an hour. It was a
good one, with pretty much constant lightning, hard rain, wind, and a
bonus light show when something fell across the power lines about
two doors down. Repeatedly.

Cindy Hamilton

On Tuesday, June 23, 2015 at 1:32:41 PM UTC-4, Cindy Hamilton wrote:
On Saturday, June 20, 2015 at 8:10:31 PM UTC-4, micky wrote:
It was yesterday or the day before that I agreed with someone, maybe
went further, and said I had never heard an emergency alert on the radio
or tv, even though I had heard those annoying test tones at least a
dozen times a year for the last 50 or more years.

Well. just now, maybe less than a day later, I heard one.

My cellphone woke me up at about 1:30 am today, recommending that
we go to the basement. I'm confident that if I'd gone to the living
room and turned on the TV, it would have told me the same thing, since
I've seen emergency alerts on TV before (quite often on something
recorded, so it doesn't do me a lick of good).


I don't know that you would see the same thing, at least not
here in NJ. I know many, many times I've been watching TV
and seen a simple ticker that is from the TV station and not
from the special emergency warning system for storm alerts.
It doesn't kick the station off, take over the tv, and sound
the warning buzzer, like the actual emergency warning thing does.
They've used it for what you're talking about, eg severe
thunderstorm alerts, flash flood alerts, etc. It's just a
scrolling ticker, clearly from the station. This other
emergency warning thing that they test every week, puts up
a big, very different looking banner together with the buzzing
alert.

Another major difference that shows it's not the emergency
warning system that is used for the typical storm alerts is
this. I have a Tivo. If I'm watching a recorded program,
this annoying emergency system test stops the Tivo from
playing the recorded program, and instead kicks it back to
live TV, where the stupid test thing plays for 20 secs or so.
I have seen it do that many times and assume it does it with
other DVRs too. It's never done that except for the weekly
test.